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One of the key pledges of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when coming to office in 2014 was to clean up India – metaphorically in seeking to reduce corruption, but also practically too. The recent demonetisation exercise is supposed to be helping the former (but it's still causing chaos – the newspapers report over 50 deaths of people waiting in the long queues in banks and at ATMs; there have also been reports of state ministers being caught with car boots full of black money!). For the latter, a five year campaign to rid India of rubbish was launched and the Prime Minister was even seen with brush in hand for a photo opportunity or two! Nagpur is supposed to be one of the greenest and cleanest cities in India but there is still a fair amount of rubbish about, often just dumped at the side of the road. A couple of weeks ago I visited a local lake said to be a popular spot for relaxing and found hundreds of what looked like straw dolls in the water lapping against the lakeshore: apparently these were “gods” which had been tossed into the lake as part of a Hindu ritual and had now served their purpose. (That was also a trip where I appeared to become a local celebrity – first a family drew up in their car and then some school girls both wanted a photograph with me – I think because there are very few white faces here!). Friends I've met here told me a story which perhaps illustrates the challenge facing those wanting to tidy up India. They live in an apartment block and have a small balcony. For a number of years their neighbour upstairs got rid of most of their rubbish by tossing it onto the balcony below. I'm sure my friends asked them not to but the habit persisted. Then they bought a canopy for the balcony and the rubbish problem stopped. Then one day their neighbour came to complain because they could now see rubbish out of their window and that wasn't good enough. There was a complete lack of recognition that it was their rubbish that they could now see because it was piling up on the canopy - the problem was the canopy for blocking the way for the rubbish rather than them for throwing it out in the first place! It seems the basic premise is "out of sight, out of mind" and it's then someone else's job to clear it up!!! For many, the Hindu caste system does of course literally dictate the course of life so that what job you are able to do is dictated by what caste you are: for most people clearing up litter is presumably not part of what they are destined for…. The work of Slum Soccer is very important here in that it seeks to show underprivileged young people that their lives don't have to be constrained by their caste by providing opportunities to develop themselves using football as a tool. Gender equality is also taught as in India, violence and discrimination against women is still prevalent in many communities. In Nagpur, things are relatively relaxed so it is OK for boys and girls to play football together, but this is not the case in every area in India. Last week it was Childrens' Day in India - around 150 boys and girls from the local villages came to the compound to play some fun games, get a hot lunch and be taught about effective handwashing! Shoe boxes from Operation Christmas Child were also handed out as prizes for a drawing competition. I found myself playing the part of a local dignitary to give out some of the gifts! A couple of weeks ago I briefly met Leah Pattison who’s actually from the North East of England but has lived in Nagpur for the last 20 years or so. Leah runs a small NGO called “Women in Need” (www.women-in-need.co.uk) which works to improve the lives of underprivileged women and children.
They provide help in a number of ways – one of the most awful things they try to address are situations where women are abandoned by their families, perhaps when they get ill or are proving a burden. Often, the family will take the woman to the station, buy them a one way ticket to somewhere far away in a different state where they don't know anyone and don't speak the language and send them on their way – abandoning them. These women usually end up destitute, without shelter and medical treatment. Leah and her colleagues provide shelter, medical treatment, counselling and other support to help rescue the lives of these women. In some cases, and perhaps after many years, they are able to reunite the women with their families. It's a small scale work, but incredibly valuable nonetheless – however there is clearly much more to be done in changing attitudes so that these situations don't occur in the first place. It's a big task...
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In about ten days time I will be travelling to the far south of India to visit the city of Chennai, one of India’s four largest cities and capital of Tamil Nadu state. Tamil Nadu is the homeland of one of humanity’s living classical civilisations – the Dravidian civilisation - stretching back uninterrupted for two millennia – and it will be interesting to try to spot the differences from Nagpur. I have already been warned that the diet is quite different. Also on my itinerary may be a visit to the city of Puducherry, formerly known as Pondicherry – and until 1954 under French rule. As many of you will know, the humble cow is highly esteemed in the Hindu religion, which is why they seem to have freedom to go where they wish here in India, even in city streets! In most Indian states, the slaughter of cows is illegal; Maharashtra, where Nagpur is, has also recently banned the sale and export of beef, so another story making the news in the Nagpur Times last week was the seizure of around 2,000 kg of cow bones and meat, reported as follows:
“In probably the region’s biggest seizure after the beef ban, a pick up truck illegally ferrying around 2,000 kilograms of butchered remains of cows was seized at Manas Square in the wee small hours of Friday. This was one of the rare instances when a huge quantity of bones was seized. Acting on a tip-off, members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) started chasing a truck, which is said to have been loaded from Gaddigodam. They managed to stop it at Manas Square near the railway station. In enquiring, the driver told them that he was transporting vegetables. “When we were checking the carriage, the driver and his helper fled. The truck was laden with heaps of bones along with meat,” said Jitu Kundwani of VHP. Although the cow has long had a protected place in Indian culture, some would see the tightening of restrictions on the sale of beef, and the accompanying vigilantism as indicators of how Hindu nationalism (turning India into a Hindu nation) is strengthening under the BJP government of Narendra Modi. Due to the historical connections, and as it’s a Union Territory, Pondicherry is one of the few places in India where you can easily enjoy a fine, medium rare fillet steak without problems, so I’m looking forward to tucking in, hopefully accompanied by a glass of red wine should I manage to get there! Bon appetit! I thought that for my next posts I would highlight a couple of the major stories in the Nagpur Times this week. The biggest news shock for many in the world this past week was probably the election of Donald Trump to be the next President of the United States of America. However, here in India a bigger surprise was the announcement of the immediate withdrawal from circulation of 500 (roughly equal to £5) and 1000 Rupee notes overnight on Tuesday and the introduction of new 500 and 2000 Rupee notes as replacement. The Government’s intention is to remove so called "black money" – money which has been earned legally or through corrupt or illegal activities and on which no tax has been paid – from the economy, with a view to tackling the funding of terrorism and other subversive activities. The World Bank estimated that the black economy was worth 23.2% of India’s total economy in 2007. Notwithstanding what seems a good aim, the majority of people in India carry out their daily business in cash and so the change is having a big impact on day to day life – the banknotes that have been withdrawn represented 86% of the cash in circulation. Reports suggest that long withheld taxes have finally been paid (using stashed old notes before they have been withdrawn); India’s jewellers have been working overtime to help people convert their old money into gold. Housewives who may have saved up a secret stash of cash for a rainy day without their husband’s knowledge have suddenly had to declare their savings. Those who are paid in cash on a daily basis may not get paid as there is not enough change in smaller notes to go round. It is coming up to wedding season in India and there are a lot of expenses to meet for which cash is usually used. There are many banks in Indian cities but those living in the villages are unlikely to have immediate access to a bank to deposit or exchange old notes – it is reported that more than 300 million people do not have any Government registration documents and more than half the population still do not have a bank account - so there could be a particularly negative impact for those who are on the margins of society. There is quite a lot of chaos and although the idea of clamping down on the black economy seems popular, there may be a risk that the policy makes the Government less popular rather than more popular if the administration of the change doesn’t start to improve. I’ve not been immune to the changes as I got paid some of my expenses in cash (bundles of the old 500 Rs notes) and there were, initially at least, quite severe restrictions on how much could be exchanged and rumours that you would only get back 80% of the value of the old notes in the new. Colleagues are helping me sort things out – hopefully in the next few days I should have everything changed over. There was great excitement amongst the staff when Nikhat Madam returned from the bank with some of the first new 2,000 Rs notes for me – pictured above! My next concern will be to start changing some of the new notes back to sterling or dollars as I’m finding that I’m not spending a lot whilst I’m here and the rupee is a soft currency and can’t be exchanged in the U.K. Providentially, I happened to listen to a recorded sermon on Luke 12: 13-21 (the Parable of the Rich Fool) yesterday which brought a timely reminder of the right perspective to have on the situation!
For this blog post, I thought you may be interested to learn more about Slum Soccer (slumsoccer.org) – how it developed and what its main programmes are today. There are a couple of really interesting short pieces of film to watch too – the first is a general piece on Slum Soccer; the other tells you more about the impact of one particular programme in a community near Nagpur. Slum Soccer was founded by Mr Vijay Barse, a sports professor in 2001. It began when he noticed two street children kicking a broken bucket around in the rain. The sheer enjoyment they found in such a simple game highlighted the benefit of sports and led Mr Barse to gift a football to a few of the slums in the local area. A few weeks later, he returned to arrange an informal tournament and things developed from there. Slum Soccer use football to encourage community inclusion and overcome barriers facing the marginalised populations of India. The homeless, slum and village communities of India face a variety of complex issues, such as sexual and domestic abuse, unemployment, alcoholism, drug usage, malnutrition, mental health issues and disengagement from the education sector. They believe that sport and football offer a set of transferable skills for social development, through team building, acceptance and discipline. They provide positive role models and a place to develop and have enjoyment. In 2002, they introduced football coaching to increase the amount of contact time with the kids, asked by the parents who were happy that their children had a safe activity to do which they enjoyed. In 2006, they introduced social programmes, using football as a tool for education. They teach life skills, including health, hygiene and sanitation, gender equality, sexual health and financial skills. In 2010, they introduced female only teams with specific life skills topics to improve female empowerment. They also run workshops for parents to help in their children’s development and in financial skills to help them support their families. To return to the core of what they do, they then established a football training academy in Nagpur and now coach ‘rising stars’ from across India. There are main offices in Nagpur and Chennai, and they operate in nine cities in India. There are four core programmes, funded mainly by international donors: A) Health camps – providing life skills training to marginalised communities and promoting healthy living and fitness B) Youth leaders – training young people to become football coaches C) Rising stars – developing football talent at the academy D) Edu-kick – working with local schools to use football to teach curriculum subjects In addition they work with many other partners and donors, running individual community engagement projects. Young people from Slum Soccer have attended the Homeless World Cup (www.homelessworldcup.org) in various cities across the world, broadening their horizons by travelling to new places and meeting people from other cultures. So what does a typical day working with Slum Soccer look like? The day starts about 8am with breakfast at the guest house – typically bread or sweet toast with jam, occasionally an omelette, tea and some fruit – bananas or Nagpur oranges. Usually, Consti, the German volunteer who is working with Slum Soccer for six months as part of a gap year comes up to the house to join me. The Slum Soccer office hours are nominally 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, but in reality it tends to be later when things get going and can be earlier when everyone heads to deliver coaching sessions or home. So there's a bit of free time after breakfast before heading to the office. It's nice to be able to throw open the doors to the balcony of my bedroom and look over the fields towards Nagpur as the heat of the day begins to pick up once again. It's still routinely about 32 degrees Celsius, dropping to about 16 degrees overnight! People then gradually arrive on a succession of motorbikes and scooters – the office manager Nikhat-Madam, senior coaches such as Sajid, Prasanna and Pankaj and junior coaches including Annikesh and Himanshu. Some staff like Homkant, the Slum Soccer head coach are currently living on site and there's also the younger guys who cheerfully help out around the site such as Shubham, Bunty and Bardel. There was great sadness at the end of this week when Mankesh, another of the younger guys and considered to be part of the family was fatally injured in a road accident near to the site – a horrible reminder about the dangers of travelling on the roads here. My key contacts Abhijeet, the CEO and his wife Mahima are usually on-site between 11am and 4pm, childcare arrangements allowing. Although those who know me will know that I'm not averse to a later start, it does mean that there has been quite a lot of less productive time. AfID partners are asked to commit to their key staff being available for a minimum of four hours a day – this is clearly not working out here and will reduce the progress which I’m able to make, though I am the first AfID volunteer they have had so there is a sense that we are all feeling our way along. Most of this week was taken up with Diwali holidays, so there’s been less people around for less of the time than normal! At around 1pm I return to the guesthouse to have lunch, usually rice, daal, curried vegetables and chapatis, sometimes followed by ice cream, and always accompanied by an anti malarial pill! After a short rest it's time to head back to the office for another stint. A lot of my time so far has been spent finding out about how the finances of Slum Soccer are currently being managed and thinking about what the next steps of development should be. I've also been drafting basic spreadsheets, forms and policies to help strengthen processes immediately. Usually Bardel brings round a welcome tray of tea mid afternoon – sadly no biscuits however!
By 5.30pm most people have headed home or to deliver coaching sessions in local communities so I make my way back to the guest house for dinner, and more free time ahead!!! |
AuthorJonathan. Chartered Accountant from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Spending a couple of months as an AfID volunteer working with Slum Soccer in Nagpur, India. Saved by grace through faith to do good works. ArchivesCategories |